Citation

Mienaltowski A, Groh BN, Hahn LW, Norman JF. Vision Res. 2019; 165: 22-30.

Affiliation

Department of Psychological Sciences, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.visres.2019.09.002

PMID

31618705

Abstract

Everyday threat detection includes recognizing threat cues in facial expressions found in our peripheral visual field. The current study examined age differences in the detection of emotion in low and high intensity angry and fearful facial expressions presented in younger and older adults' parafoveal (±5°) and peripheral visual field (±10°, ±15°). For both age groups, detection performance was better for higher than for lower intensity stimuli, and detection performance declined with greater peripheral distance. Although younger and older adults displayed a similar pattern of findings for angry facial expressions, younger adults appeared to be more sensitive to lower intensity fearful expressions across all viewing positions. These findings demonstrate that, although threat detection may be partly maintained into older age, neurophysiological changes may accompany aging that selectively reduce older adults' sensitivity to peripheral facial cues of fear.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Aging; Emotion; Facial expressions; Peripheral vision; Threat detection